In recent years, consumers have become more and more concerned about the safety and health of the active ingredients added to products while pursuing the efficacy of cosmetics. With the breakthrough of biotechnology, the "new Chinese" skin care ingredients derived from natural plant extracts have been favored by the market.
Among them, tea extract, as a natural and pure plant raw material with oriental connotation, is gaining popularity in the cosmetics market. According to the 2023 and 2024 "Top 30 Functional Ingredients List" released by BEBD, tea extracts are on the list. In addition, data shows that in the first nine months of 2023, the number of tea ingredient registered products increased by 34% compared with the same period in 2022.
Born in 2019, ELAM PAL focuses on the skin problems of the Oriental population, using white tea as the cornerstone to continue to explore the innovative application of tea-based skin care, and launches its first¹Oriental tea series products specially designed for late-night skin.
"Cosmetics Observation" learned that recently, Yilanbao and Jiangnan University jointly created a joint research center to innovate the application of white tea raw materials, which also means that the brand will further consolidate the strategic scientific research cornerstone of "tea skin care".
The first¹Oriental tea series
Directly hit the pain points of staying up late
Facing the sea and backed by mountains, Fujian's unique geographical environment provides fertile soil for the growth of tea, and the fragrance of tea here stretches from Wuyi Mountain in Nanping to Taimu Mountain in Fuding.
Hong Shengbao, the founder of the Yilan Bao brand, grew up in the immersion of Fujian tea, which has created the brand's unique genes.
At the beginning of its establishment, Elam Bao was positioned as a tea skin care brand specially developed for oriental skin, and took tea as the soul of the brand. Different from other brands on the market, Yilan Bao starts with Fuding White Tea, the most representative of Fujian, and integrates tea elements into its skin care products.
In terms of product creation, Yilan Bao accurately understands that with the acceleration of the pace of life and the increase of work pressure, staying up late has become the norm for more and more working women, and the resulting problems such as dullness and sensitivity of skin are frequent. At the same time, as a plant extract, the mild nature of white tea also makes it an antioxidant "gospel" for delicate and sensitive skin caused by staying up late.
"As a Fujianese native, I know that Fujian white tea is world-renowned, and its mild and powerful antioxidant power is highly compatible with the skin care needs of people who stay up late on skin. Therefore, we decided to use white tea as the cornerstone to start the journey of "tea skincare" of Elam Pack. Hong Shengbao said.
Based on this, Yilan launched the first ¹ Oriental Tea series products, White Tea and Reizhi Series, which mainly anchor the Oriental women who stay up late and provide efficient and gentle professional skin care solutions. This series of products covers essential oils, essence waters, essence creams, facial masks, etc., and has received many praises since its launch.
In terms of core ingredients, Yilan Bao specializes in the ingredient group "Yilan Cui", which not only uses Fuding white tea as the main antioxidant ingredient, but also cleverly integrates the triple oriental plant extracts of Ganoderma lucidum, purple jasmine and white fungus. It is understood that this innovative customized "tea-based" plant extract formula takes the strong and fragile skin base as the core of repair, resists the damage of free radicals to the skin after staying up late, and has multiple compound effects of antioxidant, soothing, repairing and moisturizing.
It is based on in-depth insights into consumers and continuous research on white tea raw materials that Elam Bao continues to deepen the brand's DNA in terms of ingredients and efficacy, and then seize the mental highland of consumers.
Co-creation research center with Jiangnan University
Lay a solid foundation for scientific research
Product power is the core competitiveness of the brand. The strengthening of product strength is inseparable from the blessing of scientific research strength.
Since the launch of the White Tea and Reizhi series products, Yilan Bao has always adhered to the brand concept of "Oriental Tea Nourishes Oriental Skin", and is committed to tailoring beauty and skin care solutions for Oriental skin from the perspective of scientific research and development.
In order to achieve innovation and breakthrough on the product side, establish brand competition barriers. On April 11, Elam Bao and Jiangnan University, which is known as the "Whampoa Military Academy in the cosmetics industry", jointly established the Cosmetics Joint Research Center to jointly innovate the unique effects of white tea extracts to solve oriental skin problems.
At the signing site, Du Liyong, associate professor of the School of Chemical and Materials Engineering of Jiangnan University, pointed out that the channels for consumers to obtain cosmetics information have become more diverse, the safety and efficacy of cosmetics have received unprecedented attention, and multidisciplinary interdisciplinary innovation has become a new engine for the development of the cosmetics industry. In the involution market, the competition of core raw materials and technologies has become the key to brand breakthrough.
For example, in 2023, there will be 13,309 products containing tea ingredients on sale, and 2,382 brands on sale, an increase of 7% and 3% respectively compared with the same period in 2022. With the intensification of competition, brands have made diverse claims to create differentiated highlights of their products from the dimensions of extreme landforms, rare tea varieties, and even picking technology.
"The concepts are endless, but the ingredients are always the same, and the final foothold is still on the core ingredients. In Du Liyong's view, on the one hand, according to the skin characteristics of different people, it is a trend to find "treatment" targets for different skin problems and precise skin care, but on the other hand, there is still a lack of scientific ingredient system mining and application target research in the application of tea extract.
Therefore, the joint research center of Yilanbao & Jiangnan University, focusing on the plant extraction of Fuding white tea, will do a systematic analysis of the ingredients, and the first stage will focus on the three core directions of "comprehensive research on the physiological characteristics of skin of Oriental people staying up late", "accurate extraction and systematic analysis of active components of white tea", "mechanism research on the biological effect of white tea on the skin", etc., to carry out in-depth research, so as to achieve more systematic, scientific and safer while transforming white tea raw materials.
To a certain extent, this cooperation is not only another strategic layout of Elam Bao in the field of product research, but also an important measure for Ellan Bao to further enhance and deepen the added value of the brand.
Ensure the quality of raw materials from the source
Deeply practice sustainability
White tea is the soul of the Elan Bao Reizhi series, so for Elan Bao, how to ensure the quality of the raw materials from the source is a very important topic.
Based on this, Yilanbao has established its own white tea planting ecological park in Fuding, and actively promotes the brand's ecological and environmental protection work in the area, so as to help the harmonious and sustainable development of man and nature.
On April 12, "Cosmetics Observation" followed the Yilanbao team into the Fuding White Tea Ecological Protection Public Welfare Zone, and had a more concrete understanding of the story behind the brand. Just imagine, in the vast tea mountains of Tianhu Mountain in Jiayang Township, Fuding, there is endless green in front of you, 10,000 acres of tea plantations are continuous, and new sprouts of tea trees are flourishing.
On the same day, Yilanbao, together with Fuding Forestry Bureau and Beijing Entrepreneur Environmental Protection Foundation, launched the public welfare activity of ecological restoration and tree planting in Fuding White Tea Garden. Through multiple measures such as plant afforestation, improving soil structure, enhancing vegetation coverage, and improving water conservation capacity, it deeply protects the ecological environment of Baicha Mountain and further promotes the sustainable and healthy development of the white tea planting industry.
This is the epitome of Yilanbao's continuous strengthening of the quality of white tea raw materials, and it is also the embodiment of the brand's firm practice of environmental protection. It is understood that in recent years, Yilan Bao has been implementing the concept of environmentally friendly and sustainable brands and products, advocating healthy and safe beauty methods, in addition to actively practicing the concept of purity and sustainability in the raw material side, the same is true in the development of products.
For example, in terms of product packaging, taking the full range of Elanbao white tea and reizhi products as an example, it insists on using FSC sustainable forest certified paper on the packaging, and printing with environmentally friendly soybean ink, and the bottle body is also made of biodegradable materials, although the cost is much higher. This seemingly small move has also helped the brand to fan many young consumers.
As a cutting-edge beauty brand with its own "tea gene", Yilanbao has started from the market segment, combined with the local culture of Fuding to develop white tea series products, continuously deepening the brand concept and embarking on a differentiated path.
On this basis, it took the lead in joining hands with well-known schools and enterprises to carry out in-depth excavation of white tea extracts from the raw materials and R&D ends. It is believed that in the future, Elam Bao will also achieve new breakthroughs in the field of "tea for skin".
Note¹Refers to the first skincare product line of the Elam Bao brand to use tea as the main ingredient.
【Copyright Notice】This article is the author's independent point of view and does not represent the position of Pinguan.com/Pinguan APP. If you need to reprint, please contact the original author. If you need to authorize other content on this site, please contact [email protected].